October 1st, 2023 marks the official start of our CRC 1597 Small Data. It has been quite a journey to get to this point. Starting with a brainstorming meeting in 2019, where we Freiburg researchers from different areas of data analysis and artificial intelligence discussed ideas for collaboration and converged on the topic of “small data”, then leading to the concept of a collaborative research center, through countless meetings to shape collaborations and further strengthen ties across disciplines, culminating in the on-site review of our proposal, where we were able to present our vision of how computer science, mathematics, statistics/systems modeling, and biomedicine can jointly shape the field of “small data”. Thanks to the generous support of the German Research Foundation (DFG), we can now implement this vision together. This will certainly be a lot of work, but also incredibly rewarding. A large part of this will be due to the 31 doctoral researchers in our initiative, who represent the next generation of small data researchers, and it will be stimulating to work across disciplines, career levels, and generally different backgrounds. Let’s do this!
Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics,
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center –
University of Freiburg
